The present invention generally relates to point-of-sale (POS) systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to displaying information to shoppers using POS systems in which a personal computer is employed as a control device for controlling a display means, a printer means, a barcode scanner means, and any other peripheral equipment.
A POS terminal is usually installed inside a retail store, particularly on a counter where sales transactions take place. Computerized POS terminals use a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) coding system or the Universal Product Coding (UPC) system to facilitate quick item checkout and to maximize customer service. The SKU or UPC coding system uses a set of numbers to uniquely identify each inventory item or item variation. These coding systems contain a series of numbers that can be represented using vertical bars varying in width and spacing, “barcode”. The code may contain manufacturer identification as well as other information, such as size, contents, etc. Selling price and item description are stored in the computer memory and can be modified when necessary by the merchant. The code may be read by machine or by optical means as binary information. The deciphered coding digits may then be indexed with a computer file that contains the actual pricing and/or information associated with each SKU or UPC. Such coding arrangements permit the automatic checkout of merchandise at one or more checkout counters by optically scanning each items' barcode which, when fed to the store's point-of-sale (POS) computer, identifies the product and automatically registers the established price for that item.
The POS terminal also contains a control unit for generating data for visual display or to be printed on a receipt in accordance with the barcode data scanned by the cashier. Recently, personal computers (PCs) have been widely used as the control unit for POS terminals. These POS terminals are commonly referred to as PC-based POS systems. PC-based POS systems are generally less expensive than proprietary POS terminals because the same hardware can be configured for various types of applications by employing the appropriate software.
But current PC-based POS systems are limited by their display means and the methods used to communicate an item's price, description, and quantity to the customer as well as promote product advertising, sale items, and other customer purchase incentives, commonly referred to as “up-sells”. Current POS systems use small customer displays, commonly referred to as pole displays. Most are limited to displaying two lines of text containing about twenty alphanumeric characters per line. LED or LCD displays capable of displaying both text and graphic images are recently available. Such displays use proprietary interfaces that must be programmed and customized for various display types, and as a result, require a computer or an embedded controller to process display commands from the point of sale terminal. These displays are usually integrated in multi-function devices such as payment terminals, electronic signature capture devices, hand-held terminals, etc. Most can present images of the complete POS transaction or advertising messages, but not both simultaneously. The present invention uses inexpensive and widely available industry standard display adapters that are common to all PC-based computer systems, and as a result can display any combination of image formats simultaneously on a single screen.
The look of any displayed message is important because it needs to keep the customer's attention in order to be effective. While the customer's purchase is being processed at the checkout counter, the messages that are shown on the pole display are simple and relatively boring and cannot be effectively used for advertising and promotion purposes. Other drawbacks with this approach are the inflexibility of the display output and the difficulty in changing the contents of the message being displayed. Most of these messages are generic for use throughout the day, for example, “Welcome to ABC Store”, and cannot be easily targeted to the individual customer or the changing conditions in the store throughout the day. What is needed is a simpler and more effective system and method for displaying messages using appealing and colorful displays to communicate to the customer at the checkout stand.
Another problem that regularly results from the current pole display's inability to communicate the necessary information to the customer is when the merchant uses the POS system to scan barcodes. The problem occurs when the price associated with a particular barcode in the Price Look Up (PLU) tables contained in a POS control unit's memory, is different than the price displayed on the shelf or on the item itself. Such a problem results when a merchant changes the price of an item and only the data in the PLU tables or only the displayed price has been changed for that item. When a customer purchases such an item with this price discrepancy, the customer may actually be paying a higher price at the checkout counter than the price displayed on the shelf or the item itself. When the cashier scans an item's barcode, the POS computer calculates the item's price according to the price contained in the PLU tables located in the computer's memory, and not the low price displayed on the shelf or on the item itself that originally motivated the customer to purchase the product. A cashier operating the POS system may not be aware of all the daily price changes in a retail store and therefore may not notice the price discrepancy. Customers may not be aware that they are actually paying the higher price until they check their printed receipt, if they check the printed receipt at all. Upon discovering the higher price, the customer must return to the cashier, present the printed receipt, find the purchased item containing the barcode among all the other items purchased, have the cashier re-scan the item and check the price in the PLU tables against the price located on the shelf or on the item itself, edit the electronic record of the original purchase, adjust or refund the customer's money based on the true price, and print a new receipt with the corrected price. Whereby, the customer is greatly inconvenienced and frustrated with their shopping experience.
Another problem that commonly occurs in POS systems is when no barcode symbol is present and the cashier must manually enter a code associated with the item. The POS system must associate the manually entered code with the corresponding data in the PLU table to display the price associated with that item. An error can occur when the cashier enters the code incorrectly or when the cashier enters a code for a different but similar looking item. As a result the customer may pay for the similar item, possibly at a higher price, rather than the actual item selected.
Therefore as a result of these errors, caused by the customer's inability to monitor the scanning and pricing of the purchased items, customers feel cheated and merchants appear as deceptive, incompetent, and totally lacking in customer service which results in lost sales and failed businesses. Therefore customers and merchants need a POS system in which the customer can monitor the prices associated with their items in real-time at the checkout counter and alert the cashier to any errors so that any adjustments in the price may be made immediately and with minimum inconvenience to the customer.
PC-based POS systems running the Windows operating system can easily control multiple displays. This multiple display feature was included in the Microsoft Windows operating system to allow the computer user to increase the size of the “desktop” of the operating system to cause the computer to span the “desktop” area over two smaller monitors instead of having to purchase one large, expensive, and bulky monitor. In effect each screen when using this capability represents one half of the “desktop” of the computer, allowing the computer operator to display large documents or files across both screens for easy viewing or comparison. Such capability was included primarily for the financial services market that includes stockbrokers and commodity traders and the graphic arts field for designers and artists.
Therefore, by implementing a dual display system and method both the merchant and the customer are benefited. The cashier works with the traditional PC display screen, while pricing and advertising information are combined together on a separate customer display screen. As a result, the merchant will get the additional revenues from up-sells and advertisements displayed on the customer screen, while the customer can monitor the checkout process to ensure correct pricing.
Accordingly, a customer display system has been developed based on a novel concept of using the built-in dual display feature in PC-based systems, which maximizes advertising exposure, customer service and satisfaction while minimizing barcode-pricing errors.